10/20/2007
- Slovaks confirm Benes Decrees: “Hungarians are the cancer of the Slovak nation,
without delay we need to remove them from the body of the nation”
- Jan Slota. AHF releases statement on
the Benes Decrees and recent extremist developments in Slovakia.
"Having taken a step that has fueled ethnic hatred and assaulted
good relations with Hungary, the Slovak Parliament on September 20, 2007
adopted a resolution proposed by extremist Jan Slota ratifying and confirming
the Benes decrees. Those decrees shamefully imposed collective guilt on
the Hungarian (and German) population of Czechoslovakia in 1945 and stripped
them of their citizenship, rights and property without compensation. Czechoslovakia
also pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing in southern Slovakia. The debilitations
continue to affect many of the victims of the crimes committed in post-World
War II Czechoslovakia.

The concept of collective guilt is abhorrent to Americans and to anyone
committed to the rule of law, human rights and democracy. Rather than
affirm the inviolability of the Benes decrees, Slovakia should reject
them, provide legal redress to remedy their continuing and discriminatory
effect and thereby adopt the values shared by the trans-Atlantic community
of nations. [download
the statement]

The 1945 Benes Decrees claimed collective World War II responsibility
of Germans and Hungarians living in Czechoslovakia, and deprived them
of their rights, their property and expelled many of them from the country.
The Decrees, formally, are still in force. Austria, Germany, and Hungary
are have called for the repeal of the laws.

According to the Decrees, 2.5 million ethnic Germans (Sudetendeutsch)
and approximately 40,000 Hungarians were lost their Czechoslovakian citizenship,
their land was expropriated and they were exiled. This transition was
carried out over 1945-46, and was in many cases badly administered and
brutal. Many people lost their lives. Ethnic Czechs were moved in to fill
the empty towns.

There
are presently about 578,000 ethnic Hungarians, or Magyars, living in scattered
settlements along the southern border areas of the Slovakia and constitute
the largest ethnic minority in the country. This is 10.8% of the Slovak
Republic's population of 5,353,000 as estimated from a 1991 census and
country population review from the UN. These numbers are easily argued
as many ethnic Hungarians do not self-identify to avoid discrimination.
In either case, these Magyars are what remains of the Hungarians in what
was "Upper Hungary" for about 1000 years until 1919, when Czechoslovakia
was created.

As written on "Hungarians in the Slovak Republic" from Slovakia.org,
"Since the 1989 "velvet revolution," Slovaks have had greater
control over their region and nationalist sentiment has been growing.
This has resulted in a series of Slovak laws restricting the use of the
Hungarian language and what is perceived by the Hungarians as a campaign
advocating racial discrimination against them by many Slovak politicians
and the Slovak media. This anti-Hungarian sentiment has been made worse
by the elimination of the moderating influence of the Czechs on Slovakia's
relationship with its Hungarian minority. The elimination of Czech influence
became complete on January 1 1993 when Czechoslovakia formally divided
into Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The anti-Hungarian sentiment is
made worse by perceptions that Hungary is using Slovakia's ethnic Hungarians
as part of an expansionist policy, Whether or not this is actually the
case, it is clear that Hungary does take an active interest in the well
being of ethnic Hungarians living outside its borders, especially the
large populations in Slovakia and Romania."

Chronology of Events

Despite EU pressures and hopes that EU accession by Slovakia, anti-Hungarian
nationalism remains a threat to regional stability. Some recent highlights
from Slovakia.org:

October 26, 1991: The Slovak regional parliament votes to make Slovak
the only official language in the region. The rights of minorities to
use their own languages will continue to be respected. Hungarians can
still use their native language in all official venues in communities
where they constitute at least 20% of the population. Deputies of the
Slovak National Party (SNP) walk out in protest, demanding that the law
bar ethnic Hungarians and other minorities from conducting any kind of
business in their mother tongues. This is followed by formal protests
and hunger strikes by SNP supporters which continue well into November.

June 18, 1992: Reuters reports that in southern Slovakia some bilingual
signs have been defaced and that slogans such as "Slovakia for the
Slovaks" adorn the walls of houses.

June 30, 1992: The Financial Times reports that Hungary has called for
autonomy for ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia.

July, 1992: The European Community expresses concern about the status
of Slovakia's national minorities and the Council of Europe Secretary-General
Catherine Lalumiere visits Bratslava to discuss the matter with Slovak
Prime Minister Meciar.

August 10, 1992: The New York Times reports that Slovak Prime Minister
Meciar announced in parliament, when referring to Hungarians, that any
ethnic politicians who roil national tensions will be treated as "political
criminals."

September, 1992: Signs showing the names of ethnically mixed towns in
Hungarian are ordered removed and state-run television bans those names
from Hungarian-language television programs.

September, 1992: Prime Minister Meciar rejects any accord with Hungary
on the minority issue calling the matter an internal affair.

September 1, 1992: The Slovakian parliament passes a draft constitution.
Hungarian deputies walk out after parliament rejects their demands for
cultural, educational, and territorial autonomy. The new constitution
recognizes Hungarian as an official language only in regions where ethnic
Hungarians constitute at least 20% of the population.

October 19, 1992: Reuters reports that permission has been refused for
the creation of a Hungarian school system in Slovakia and that a proposal
by Hungarian deputies to create a Hungarian university had been rejected.

January 2, 1993: Reuters reports that under a law passed last year, all
official documents including birth certificates must be in Slovak as must
all public ceremonies. This means that ethnic Hungarians must give their
children Slovak names.

April 27, 1993: Slovak President Michal Kovac says that Slovakia will
never grant autonomy to its Hungarian minority. His statement follows
renewed calls by Coexistence for Hungarians to be given autonomy in districts
in southern Slovakia.

May 13, 1993: Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar says that his government
is ready to lift restrictions on the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia
in accordance with the Council of Europe's demands. This includes lifting
the ban on the use of Hungarian first names and the mandatory use of a
Slovak ending on all female last names. Slovakia wants to join the Council
but has been prevented from doing so because
of its perceived discrimination against minorities. Note: Meciar's HZDS
party never keeps its promise and those reforms that do occur are enacted
by another government after the HZDS party is ousted.

June 8, 1993: The Irish Times reports that in order to join the Council
of Europe, Slovakia plans to change local government boundaries in Hungarian
populated areas. The borders currently run from north to south, slicing
up the Hungarian population. Note: This promise is, to date, not kept.
In fact, the government later proposes a redistricting plan which would
make Hungarians a minority in all districts. This law passes in 1996.

June 30, 1993: Slovakia becomes a member of the Council of Europe despite
Hungary's reservations about Slovakia's treatment of its ethnic Hungarian
minority.

July, 1993: Prime Minister Meciar refuses to sign into law a bill that
would have legalized the official use of Hungarian first and family names.

July 2, 1993: The St. Petersburg Times reports that the present demands
of Hungarians in Slovakia include: the right to education in Hungarian
beyond the elementary school level, the right to Hungarian street signs
and the right to give Hungarian first names to their children.

August 12-16, 1993: Ethnic Hungarians block traffic through their village
in protest against a government decision to remove a road sign written
in Hungarian. The village later erects signs with question marks to replace
the Hungarian-language signs. In June, the government allowed Hungarian
signs to be put up alongside Slovak ones but the permission was rescinded
on July 14 and communities were given until the end of July to remove
the signs.

August 27, 1993: For the first time ever, Slovakia's ethnic Hungarians
hold a mass demonstration in the town of Komarno to defend their rights
and demand the government's compliance with the Council of Europe's recommendations
on minority rights.

September 24, 1993: Slovakia and Romania agree to coordinate their policies
on the question of national minorities. Both countries have sizable ethnic
Hungarian populations.

January 2, 1994: 500 ethnic Slovaks demonstrate in the southern Slovakian
town of Surany against self-rule for ethnic Hungarians.

January 8, 1994: About 3,500 ethnic Hungarians, mostly local elected
officials and parliament members, meet in the southern Slovakian town
of Komarno to demand greater autonomy.

March 11, 1994: Slovakia's government is ousted by a vote of no confidence.

March 14, 1994: Jozef Maravick is formally recognized as Prime Minister
at the head of a 5-party coalition which will act as a caretaker government
until elections next September.

May 27, 1994: Parliament passes a law allowing the country's ethnic Hungarians
to officially use Hungarian names. Deputies from the SNP and the HZDS
storm out of the chamber in protest claiming that the law does not comply
with the rules of Slovak grammar.

June 3, 1994: Parliament narrowly rejects a law which would allow signs
in both Slovak and Hungarian in towns with at least a 20% Hungarian population.
Hungarian deputies vote against the law because villages named after Slovak
heros are to be excluded from the law's provisions.

July 7, 1994: Parliament passes a law allowing some 590 Slovak towns
and villages with at least a 20% ethnic Hungarian population to use bilingual
signs.

March 19, 1995: Hungary and Slovakia sign a treaty agreeing on borders
and the protection of ethnic minorities. Slovakia agrees to a clause calling
for "appropriate laws or autonomous authorities" in areas where
the country's ethnic Hungarians constitute a majority. In return, Hungary
recognizes the inviolability of Slovakia's borders.

March 21, 1995: The World Coalition of Hungarians, which claims to represent
2.5 million Hungarians living outside of Hungary, states that the Hungary-Slovakia
treaty constitutes nothing but empty promises.

July 27, 1995: The Prime Ministers of Slovakia and Romania agree to boost
bilateral ties and take a common stand on the sensitive issue of treatment
of their large ethnic Hungarian minorities.

4 August 1995: Laszlo Nagy and two other ethnic Hungarian minority parties'
chairmen were being prosecuted for their statements allegedly defaming
the republic, according to complaints lodged by the government Slovak
National Party.

25 October 1995: Slovak Culture Minister Ivan Hudec said a new version
of the state language law would restore the rights of Slovaks and correct
for ethnic Hungarians having had too many rights. He also accused ethnic
Hungarian politicians of reacting unreasonably to the new version of the
bill.

12 June 1996: Slovak President Michal Kovak, visiting Hungary, urged
his own government to pass legislation to protect the language rights
of Slovakia's Hungarian minority.

1 August 1996: Far-right members of Slovakia's ruling coalition said
it would propose the country withdraw from a basic treaty with neighboring
Hungary over the issue of ethnic Hungarian abroad.

7 September 1996: The Slovak cultural and educational organization Matica
Slovenska has warned the Council of Europe of "Hungarian irredentism
in Slovakia." On 25 August, their supporters protested against a
demand for autonomy for the half-million strong Hungarian minority in
south Slovakia and alleged violation of the rights of Slovaks in that
area.

10 October 1996: Slovakia, appealing to be included in the first wave
of new NATO members, said it was doing more for ethnic rights than some
NATO states. Foreign Minister Pavol Hamzik said a proposed law protecting
minority languages was all that was needed to improve human rights. The
U.S. State Department said on 3 October that Washington was concerned
about indications that the Slovak government's commitment to democracy
had been weakening.

23 October 1996: The traditional division of the country into four regions
has been discarded in favor of a system with eight regions centered around
the country's eight largest cities. In addition, these eight regions are
further divided into 79 district levels governments. With
the new district organization, ethnic Hungarians would not be the majority
of any district. At present the Hungarian minority is well-represented
in Parliament and local governments, but not in the central government.

These continued actions on the part of Slovakia add fuel to an already
explosive situation. Oppressive "Language laws," preventing
education, and forcing parents to choose certain nameshas no place in
a new Europe of the 21st century. AHF will continue to monitor the situation
and assist the Hungarian community in support of its right to free-association,
basic human rights, dignity, and national self-determination. - special thanks to slovakia.org for the partial chronolgy and other material
above.

2/4/2005 - Hungarians have until September
2005 to formally request return of confiscated properties in Slovakia
under the Benes Decrees. The "Szabad Ujsag" weekly
has published a list of those lands, which were taken away during the
Benes programs. The original owners or their descendants may recover these
expropriated lands and properties if they can prove their ownership and
relationships to the original owner. The validated documents have to be
shown to the proper athorities. One catch is that it has to be proven
before September 1 of 2005.
[Check
the Database - in Hungarian and Slovak from Szabad
Ujsag and the Hungarian
Human Rights Foundation]

3/1/2008 - AHF joins international petition effort to call attention to the Benes Decrees. On September 20, 2007, the Slovak Parliament adopted a resolution proposed by extremist
Jan Slota ratifying and confirming the Benes decrees. This is unacceptable. Make your feelings known. [Sign the petition] and read more about the cruel [Benes Decrees] which unjustly expelled thousands of Hungarian families from their ancestral homelands. See where the [demonstrations] will be held and get involved!

Why So Many Hungarians Across the Border?

One
thousand years of nation building successfully delineated groups
based on culture, religion, geography, and other attributes to create
the countries with which we are so familiar. While some Western European
nations would continue power struggles and princely battles and civil
wars, Hungary, founded in 896, was a peaceful multi-ethnic state for a
1000 years and her borders were virtually unchanged. Until 1920...

The Treaty of Trianon in 1920... in the aftermath of WWI, was extremely harsh on Hungary
and unjustifiably one-sided. The resulting "treaty" lost Hungary
an unprecedented 2/3 of her territory, and 1/2 of her total population
or 1/3 of her Hungarian-speaking population. Add to this the loss of up
to 90% of vast natural resources, industry, railways, and other infrastructure.

In the newly created Slovakia, the tragedy of 1920 that befell the historic Hungarian communities was only the beginning. The Benes Decrees sent millions of people, who had lived in the region for
many centuries, off in sealed wagons, away from their homes, their families
- not to mention the odd ones who died on the trip. Tens of thousands of these were Hungarian. More recently, the Slovak Language Law makes the use of the minority language in official communication punishable in towns and villages where the ethnic community makes up less than 20 percent of the total population. The amendment requires that all documentation of minority schools should be duplicated in the state language. The law stipulates that the names of streets and buildings anywhere in Slovakia must be stated in the Slovak language [despite 1100-year-old tradition] and it also introduces sanctions of 100 to 5000 euros for municipalities and public offices for not using the Slovak language "properly."

The following graphic shows ethnic distribution in Slovakia and population decline from 1910 - 1991:

Ethnic Distribution in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1910 (Hungarians shown in red)

Hungarian populations declined significantly after forced removals such as the Benes Decrees and other pograms, the effects of WWI, and Trianon in 1920. With continued pressure and discriminative policies such as the 2009 Slovak Language Law, this trend continued over the past 90 years.

In Upper Hungary (awarded to Slovakia, Czechoslovakia): 1,687,977 Slovaks and 1,233,454 others (mostly Hungarians - 886,044, Germans, Ruthenians and Roma) [according to the 1921 census, however, there were 1,941,942 Slovaks and 1,058,928 others]

By Any Other Name: Hungary, Apartheid,
and the Benes Decreesby Christopher Szabó,
diacritica.com
April 3, 2002

These decrees sent millions of people, who had lived in the region for
many centuries, off in sealed wagons, away from their homes, their families
- not to mention the odd ones who died on the trip.

WHAT THE BENES DECREES SAY

One may be forgiven for suspecting, by the casual way the Benes Decrees
are often disparaged by commentators, that many of those who write about
the Decrees have never taken the trouble to [read
them].

Living as I have for over 20 years in South Africa, I know this language
well. It is the language of Apartheid.

There is no moral difference, to my mind, in withdrawing civil rights,
confiscating private property and deporting people, whether they be Black
South Africans sent to some "Homeland/Bantustan," or Armenians,
or deported Chechens, or Germans and Hungarians.

The Hungarians who lived in what is now Slovakia and Trans-Carpathian
Ukraine (which was given to Stalin by a grateful Benes in 1945) were more
than one million strong in 1910. By 1930, thanks to the above-mentioned
"administrative" cleansing, their numbers had been reduced to
585,434. After Hungary reclaimed its lands in 1939, people began moving
back to their homes. In 1941-45, there were about 761,000 in what is today
Slovakia alone. [read
more]

The "Benes Decrees" began in the mind of Czech
statesman Edvard Benes sometime in 1940. He made some quite clear statements
about his plans by 1941. The plans? To kill and/or expel all people of
German or Hungarian ethnicity/language from a reunited Czechoslovakia,
which had fallen apart at the start of the war. This is
the sort of thing you would expect from a Himmler or a Beria, not a guy
who is lionised in Western history books, and generally books about Central
Europe, as the only true "democrat" in the region. But Czechoslovakia
was never a complete democracy. Just as interwar Hungary, or Poland, or
Yugoslavia, were not. Not quite. In Czechoslovakia, designed as a "national
homeland" for Slavs, the Slavic Rusyns had to have two votes to equal
one Czech vote! Democracy? [read
more]

The first Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938) was recreated in 1945 at
the end of World War II and existed until the end of 1992. In both cases,
Czechoslovakia utterly failed to form a governmental structure that secured
freedom, prosperity, peace, and equal rights for all citizens of the state.

In 1918, the newly founded Czechoslovak Republic was entirely carved
out of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy by a unilateral decision of
the victorious entente powers. The dictated peace treaties of Versailles,
Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Trianon were not an outcome of a true peace
conference at which the defeated would also have been given the opportunity
to enunciate the limits of acceptable conditions for peace. Such a peace
conference was never assembled.

The Versailles peace treaty with Germany was condemned by non-interested
parties. In fact, the US Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, had declared
that "the Versailles treaty menaces the existence of civilization,"
and two popes had stigmatized the instrument. Benedict XV condemned it
for "the lack of an elevated sense of justice, the absence of dignity,
morality or Christian nobility," and Pius XI, in his 1922 encyclical
"Ubi arcam Dei," deplored an artificial peace set down on paper
"which instead of arousing noble sentiments increases and legitimizes
the spirit of vengeance and rancour."

The peace treaty of Trianon (1920) with Hungary resulted in the dismemberment
of the thousand- year- old Hungarian Kingdom, as a result of an unbelievably
inimical attitude of the allied representatives toward the Magyars. The
consequence to Hungary was a loss of 71.5% of its territory and 63.6%
of its population. The extreme tragedy of Hungary can be illustrated by
comparing the smaller losses in 1871 of France to Germany, in which France
gave up 2.6% of its territory and 4.1% of its population to Germany. The
Trianon treaty forced three and a half million Magyars to live, without
their consent, in Czechoslovakia, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and
Slovenians and Rumania, with the stroke of a pen. The right of self-determination
of nations, solemnly promised in the 14 points of US President Woodrow
Wilson, was apparently forgotten. [more]

The Hungarian Problem
Or, the Hungarians are the ProblemChristopher Szabó, diacritica.com
Autumn, 1998

Newly Elected Prime Minister Viktor Orban said it well: "The borders of the Hungarian nation and the Hungarian State do not
coincide." This is true, as witness the fact that fully one-third
of all Hungarians are minorities in neighbouring countries, most just
on the far side of the border.

This is, naturally, a problem for Hungarians. It is
also a problem for all the states who got Hungarian lands. Many in neighbouring
countries, and politicians in many more, have said in the past, and no
doubt will say in the future: "Why don't they just go home?!!"
But they are home!

They
are home in the sense that they, as communities, haven't moved anywhere.
They just woke up one morning to be told: "You are now a Czechoslovak,
you are a Romanian, you are a Yugoslav." This first happened in 1918-20,
when Hungary was partitioned by the infamous Trianon Treaty, which was
not a treaty at all, but a diktat enforced by occupying Entente Armies.
In the late 1930's, Hungary got some portions of its territories back,
but after losing yet another war, the borders were tightened even more
in 1947.

The key weakness of these treaties was that neither ever asked - or cared
- what the local population wanted. Did they want to join a new state
(e.g., Czechoslovakia) did they want to stay with Hungary, or did they
want independence or autonomy or what?

The fact that these questions have never even been asked, let alone answered,
in a supposedly democratic age, remains the central problem of the Hungarian
minorities in the countries immediately surrounding Hungary. [more] [back
to all AHF news]

A
Case Study on Trianon The Corvinus Library

..."the
American government accepts, against its better judgment, the decision
not to announce a plebiscite in the matter of the final drafting of frontiers.
He believes that in many respects the frontiers do not correspond to the
ethnic requisite, nor to economic necessity, and that significant modifications
would be in order, particularly in the Ruthenian area." Later on
Wallace submitted for the consideration of the Great Powers proposals
with regard to a restoration of the economic unity of the Danubian states.
The American initiative, however, came too late ... The only thing left
was the Millerand cover letter, which did not oblige anyone to do anything!

The Hungarian peace delegation signed the peace treaty consisting of
14 points at the so-called Great Trianon palace, near Paris, on June 4,
1920. Hungary's fate was determined for an unforeseeable future by the
second part of the treaty which defined the new borders. According to
this section Hungary's area (without Croatia) would be reduced from 282,000
km2 to 93,000 km2, whereas its population decreased from 18 million to
7.6 million. This meant that Hungary lost two thirds of its territory,
whereas Germany lost but 10 percent and Bulgaria but 8 percent to the
benefit of their victorious neighbors.

As regards population, Hungary lost more than 60 percent of its inhabitants
as opposed to the 10 percent lost by Germany. In the lands taken away
from Hungary there lived approximately 10 million persons. Persons of
Hungarian nationality constituted 3,424,000 in the areas taken away from
Hungary. Of these 1,084,000 were attached to Czechoslovakia, 1,705,000
to Romania, 564,000 to Yugoslavia, and 65,000 to Austria. Thus 33.5 percent
of all Hungarians came under foreign rule, i.e., every third Hungarian.
For the sake of comparison. while the treaties of Versailles and Neuilly
placed only one German or one Bulgarian out of every twenty under foreign
rule, the Trianon treaty placed seven out of twenty Hungarians in the
same position.

Furthermore about one half of the Hungarian minority attached to the
neighboring states was ethnically directly next to the main body of Hungarians
on the other side of the borders. Had the peace treaties signed in the
Paris suburbs really tried to bring about, however incidentally, nation-states,
then it would have had to leave at least 11/4 to 2 million more Hungarians
inside Hungary. In contrast the 42 million inhabitants of the successor
states there were about 16 million minorities, as a consequence of which
Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia became multinational states much
like the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy had been. What is more, according to
the census of 1910 the percentage of Hungarians in Hungary had reached
54.4 percent, whereas in the nations that came about as a result of the
peace treaties, in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, the leading Czech and
Serbian elements constituted but a minority as compared to the other ethnic
groups.

The Treaty of Trianon was a great blow to Hungary in economic terms as
well. Hungary was deprived of 62.2 percent of its railroad network, 73.8
percent of its public roads, 64.6 percent of its canals, 88 percent of
its forests, 83 percent of its iron ore mines and of all its salt mines.

At the Peace Conference the Entente powers, in order to satisfy the imperialist
greed of their allies in central Europe, cut across roads, canals, railroad
lines, split cities and villages in two,
deprived mines of their entrances, etc.